Myriad The forbidden secret of savage intellect is the key to the future of Mars? Rob Sanders The Martian firmament shuddered. Something moved to the surface from the depths of the planet under the assembly shops of the Tarantine temple. In the old days, a magnificent spectacle of magnata-technology and production of the Titans unfolded in the southern section, collecting Bogomachiny for Legio Excoriate. Now, from the grandiose temples, the wicked light of corruption spilled. The tweaking designs worked on tall monsters - monsters that dominated the neighborhood, which were supposed to be Titans like the "Lord of War", but instead became metal monsters, populated by demons and armed with techno-tactical weapons. Entire rows of these monsters silently stood on the storage pads in anticipation of heavy orbital transporters, who were to take them to cargo ships intended for dispatch to the armada of the master of the war. Only these heavy transport workers will not arrive. The VII legion established a blockade around the supreme peace-forge, and nothing could leave Mars. Like the monstrous tanks, obsessed with cyborgs and shelves with armor sets, stored in scattered warehouses all over the planet, the Titans of Chaos were covered with dust. Dust, which now flowed with powerful currents around the hills, as the rock under their feet shook. Titan "Lord of the War" was a walking fortress with thick walls and powerful shields. Anyone who met on the battlefield this apocalyptic opponent, well understood that he had few vulnerabilities. As the former prince of the College of the Titanic, Callistra, Lennox had the honor of both piloting and crushing such godmothers. She knew that one of the few vulnerable points of the "Lord of War" Martian assembly like "Alpha" was located on the command deck, to which it was almost impossible for ground troops to reach. Lennox, standing inside the gyroscopic compartment of Archimedesx, the earth-moving machine Mole, felt like an adamantium nose paving a tunnel with the help of a phase field, passed a rocky Martian substrate, the ground and finally made its way to the surface inside the assembly shop. While the huge tunnel-laying machine was stretching upwards, like a tower rising from the ground, the interior landing parcels filled with troops were scrolling, preserving their orientation in space, which in turn greatly facilitated the landing. By order of Princeps, the point of exit to the surface lay next to the "Lord of War", identified as "Ajax Abominata." Constructions from the resistance series for several weeks observed the section with littered with trash slopes of the surrounding mountains. The work on Ajax Abominata was coming to an end, although scaffolds with mobile gantry cranes were still hovering around its armored hull. It was a suitable target for sabotage, and the princeps knew exactly what to do. Not that she was now very much like an officer of the Legion of the Titanic. Although under the flaps of bulletproof vest and shell still visible uniform, but it was torn and all covered with oily divorce. The black leather of the boots was all wiped, and the fingers of the gloves were roughly cut off. The empty eye socket, from which the bionics had been torn off, covered the bandage, a heavy short chain blade hung from the waist, replacing the ceremonial saber. Grenades and flasks with hydrogen were hanging out on the sling, princeps was clutching a blunt plasma-coulurin in the hands. "Get ready," she said sternly. The cell of resistance Mehunikum, to which Lennox joined, was known as the Devoted Omniscia. Like all of her followers, Lennox was one of those who managed to survive on Mars. Having passed the Exodus to Terra, she became a rebel in her home world. While the garbage code tore to pieces the supreme peace-smithy, infecting everything that it managed to reach, some Martians and designs followed the call of their instincts. As an abominable countermeasure, as if people who had swallowed a toxin or poison and were trying to cause a fit of nausea, some strong-hearted true servants of Omnissia managed to injure themselves. They ripped the bionics out of their bodies, cut the communication lines and burned wireless receivers. Ports and interfaces were cut, their bodies and minds disconnected from the Martian information networks. They protected themselves from infected data streams that contained insanity, spiritual corruption and distortions of flesh and form. It was the same corruption that struck almost everyone who stayed on the Red Planet, even the general-factory owner Kelbor-Hal, who was now just a withered ball of impure details. Like the Magos who served him, as constructions, which in turn served those Magos, he became a slave of darkness. Puppet, the thread from which through the light years stretched to the traitor - the master of the war Mountain. A motley company gathered in the compartments of the Mole, consisting of adepts with empty faces, frayed in the battles of the skitarians, freed tech technicians, hired servants, armed servitors, rescued by their masters, cumbersome clumsy handymen, tamed savages and somehow wired combat automatons. All swore allegiance to the Omnisian Devotees, but needed a field commander. In someone who had a grasp of tactics and destructive operations, someone who could help the rebels in carrying out sabotage and subversive activities. When Lennox joined them, they found just such a leader. "Ten seconds," the princeps asked the rebels. Her deputies, Omnek-70 and Galaxax Zarko, stood on the sides. Omnek-70 was a scythian-ranger, armed with a long-barreled transuranic arquebus. Zarko was a cumbersome machine-master who was holding a power ax made in the form of a Omnissia gear. Lennox listened to the sounds with which the drill and the phase field passed through various layers of soil and soil. She jumped onto the deck. "Ratchek," she called to her former moderati, now the bespectacled operator of Mole, "turn off the main engine and open the outer hatches." Layered bulkheads with hydraulic hissing slid to the sides, revealing gloomy interior of the assembly shop. Lennox nodded. "Come on." The complex was in full swing by the damaging structures that were carrying out its tasks, and soon Lennox and her fellow insurgents had already cut through the complete blind zones and the dangers to the landscape of the assembly shop. At the same time, the heavily armed security complex reacted to the appearance of the "Mole" and, leaving the posts of the outer perimeter, rushed from all sides to Titan. In the rooms and staircases of the grandiose factory, a cacophony of gunfire rumbled. Devotees of Omnissia used all the weapons that they could not destroy, which they could obtain, so there was no godly uniformity in their ranks. Shots of lazmoshketov flashed in the darkness. The walls of the staircases were riddled with bullets of stab-carbines. Through the overpasses lightning flashes were born, generated by arc guns. Lennox anticipated the assault riots of the insurgents, tearing off the grenades from the sling and throwing them through the flights of stairs to the upper levels. "Ajax Abominata" even in the final stages of its creation looked exactly as it seemed to her, it was supposed to look like a godmother, stricken with spoiling. Throughout the building, crouched artisans swarmed, screeching with a mad garbage code. The rebels quickly moved forward, ruthlessly shooting enemies at close range. The army of spoiled structures, occupied at the completion of Titan, was weakly armed in order to give a worthy rebuff to such a concentrated attack. The protection of the complex and the storm trooper detachments did not take into account in their calculations the possibility of attacking the Tarantin Temple from the bowels of the planet. While they, the tartan, ran to the towering forests around Titan, Lennox and her rebels climbed higher and higher. Screeched heavy servitors and spoiled cyborgs scattered on either side. Chained blades opened traitors, fountains of blood and oil flew into the air, the bodies that were torn apart were simply dropped down the edge of the bridge. The rapid advance of the rebels still met with resistance. The metal itself of Titan's shell and scaffolding bent from demonic presence. The devil's eyes opened within the walls. Suddenly bursting hatches erupted streams of acid, sometimes out of them flew tensile tentacles, trying to seize the rebels. The crevices in the decks turned into fanged mouths that cut the rebels in half. The battles went into a melee on the platform, littered with bandaged bales of supplies and cargo networks. They were attacked by servitors with black slime flowing out of their mouthpieces, and in the depths of their eyes a merciless fire was blazing. Lennox threw into battle the domesticated savages, whose limbs were rigidly articulated with arms, giving them in support of artificially created heifers, with the roots tearing away the limbs of servitor traitors. Slightly higher the rebels fell under a heavy crossfire - a distorted servant from among the crew of Titan attacked the bridges, and from the side of the mobile portal cranes the guard's anger crept up on them. The stairwell turned into a deadly trap. Lennox had neither the time nor the people to make his way to the front, so with a sweeping blow up she opened the net floor of the next level with a chain blade. Having sent a small team led by Galahax Zarko through the breach, she saw the machine-scientist spinning an ax over his head. Moving forward with a heavy tread, he broke to pieces obsessive servitors, and in the final crackling weapons with a champing sound pierced the body of the torn servant Titan. As soon as the path was cleared, Lennox urged her comrades to move forward and upward. By the time the rebels arrived at the level of the command deck of Titan, all the premises on it were tightly closed. Because of the metal partitions, frantic screams of spoiled structures were heard. "We do not have time for this," Lennox said, turning to Omnek-70 and Zarko. Pointing the door to the arquebus, Omnek-70 struck through the bulkhead with several transuranic shots. As soon as the cries of the creatures died down behind the wall, the machine-driver dropped one of the riddled gears of his ax with a cracked gear. Lennox rushed inward, pressing the plasma-cushion-iron to her breast. The room smelled of spoilage, and a leaden fog hung. On the floor lay curved bodies with gaping holes from the Omnek-70 bullets. At the princepsa, the techno-dept rushed, waving a wrench as a club. Having beaten off the blow with a culerine, she shot the creature to nothingness, then turned to the next erupting monster and burned it out of reality. "Open it," Lancox ordered to Zalko's Galaxax as they passed through the room and climbed Titan's head from the outside. From here it was possible to consider the silhouettes of the set of Titans filling the site of the assembly shop. All of them were in different degrees of readiness, around some there were curved scaffolding. Lennox looked at her feet at the leased body of Ajax Abominata. Princeps felt the sufferings of the prisoner inside the corrupted spoiling of the machine spirit. - Princeps, - called Omnek-70, located on the scaffolding, his optics, clicking, changed the filters. He pointed with his hand to the interior of the assembly shop. - "Ventorum" is awakened. Lennox swore softly. "Lord of the War" "Belladon Venteroom" was one of many sticking out in the vicinity of the assembly workshop of the Titans, from those that were already ready to be sent from the planet. And judging by its almost undisturbed appearance, it was waiting for a long time. And although most of his guns could not be used without the risk of damaging the valuable "Ajax Abominata", the mighty gatling blaster "Belladon Ventorum" could easily turn to scaffold the scaffolding on which the insurgents were. "Mashinovidets, hurry up," she cried. "There's nowhere else to go faster," Zarko said. While the usual hatch, even if reinforced, should not have brought problems to the technojuster, the metal affected by the spoiling disgustingly twisted under Zarko's tools. When he eventually opened the grotesque creature, Omnek-70 sent the muzzle of his arquebus to the musty darkness of the bridge. There was no crew on the command deck, and Lennox did not have time to come up with various tricks to disable such a complex machine. All she knew - the most complex devices on board Titan were the manifold interface and the neural communication technology of the crew with the godmachine. Zarko stepped aside, letting Lennox quickly approach the hatch. "Pass it on," the princeps ordered the rebels, who had lined up in a chain. One by one, they passed subversive charges, which before they were dragged on themselves. Zarko exhibited timers and passed them to Lennox, who tossed explosives into the darkness of the hatch. - We leave! - she shouted, leading the Devoted Omnissia away from the leased body of Titan back to the scaffolding. The mobile crane has finally completed its unhurried heavy turn and docked to the construction forests, Lennox's wards have engaged in a fierce firefight with enemy units advancing along the moaning platform. Technorab exploded with a fountain of blood and gears, when a ray of some unclean weapon pierced it. Servo-automaton ripped to shreds, the armed servitor fell down, having received a blazing shell of an autocannon in the head. - Back! - Lennox snapped, shooting a flight of stairs above them from the plasma-kulevrin. She felt the metal pull over her and trembling with anger and pain when a stream of plasma washed the walls of the passage and the floor - a real fiery storm broke out on the upper level. The smoking halves of bodies of structures fell from above. Obsessed artisan squealed at the rebels. - And you, scum! Lennox snarled at him, snapping a new flask into the plasma-kulevrin and firing back. On her shoulder the Omneka-70 metal arm dropped. It's time to leave. "Tactical retreat," she ordered, simultaneously assigning a clumsy laborer with a heavy stubber to conduct an overwhelming fire along the entire boom of the mobile crane, which was supposed to cover the retreating through the lower levels of the rebels. Throwing the hood that hung on the belt behind her back, Lennox wrapped the edge of the ladder with the inner sides of her boots and tattered gloves. Literally flying through the layers of the scaffolding hanging around the "Ajax Abominata" literally flying through the corpses, it landed on the floor and jumped aside, making room for Omneka-70 and heavier Zarko. On the lower level, the reinforcements of the traitors that came from all sides led the heavy fire with thin dark rays and arc streams that crept through the scaffolding. The assembly shop was huge, so it took some time for the sentries to get to Mole and the attacked Titan. The roar of shooting of the Dark Mechanicum poured into the general cacophony from the cod of the garbage code and howls of the sirens of alarm that were tearing apart the spaces of the assembly shop. Many of the rebels retreating along the labyrinth of the lower level cut off the fire of the devil's shock troops, approaching the point of penetration on transport. "Ratchek, back up," Lennox shouted moderati, scrambling to the scraped board of Archimedesx. Pushed into the hatch of servants and combat automatons, Lennox felt the scaffolds shudder. There was an explosion. The command deck "Ajax Abominata" disappeared in a fiery whirlwind, Titan's head flew to pieces, a hail of flaming splinters fell upon the scaffolding. "Princeps," Omnek-70 said, with a lack of emotion and haste in his voice, and he pulled Lennox toward Mole. She nodded. The steps of the mighty "Belladon Ventorum" shook the complex - Titan came out to the position for fire. The rebels did their job here. "Ajax Abominata" will not go anywhere without a command deck. Lennox, Zarko and Omnek-70 entered the interior of the transport, and the princeps lifted the hatch. Even Archimedesx, who was at the safe depth, was shaken several times when the Belladon Ventorum opened a merciless fire on the construction forests around his brother. Going through the compartments of the "Mole" Lennox noted that the flinch gradually subsided - they went deeper into the Martian interior. Even the monstrous instruments of the "Lord" could not get them here. They coped well. The master of the war will not receive "Ajax Abominatu," the countless lives of loyal subjects of the Imperium, which could break this monster, were saved. She turned and hit the key on the call panel of the internal vox. "Ratchek, cut the noosphere," she said, with a poorly concealed satisfaction in her voice. - Lime Base "Invalis" - mission accomplished. Tell them that we're coming back. Lennox wiped the short barrel of her kulivrin with an oiled rag, listening to the Martian rock rumbling and creaking along the body of Archimedesx. Several hours passed after their departure from the assembly shop of the Tarantin temple. The inner voce grunted in Ratchek's voice: "A request for help has been received ." - From whom? Lennox asked, getting to her feet. - From the scavengers. Units Forty-Four-Tork and Scully-Six-One. Lennox knew that the Invalis base regularly sent out detachments in search of unimpaired spoilage of weapons and equipment, but they rarely went so far. - Where are they? "The fields of the solar collectors of the Autonoks," Ratchek replied. "We're heading for their comm-tag." "What's wrong with them?" Lennox grumbled. Her habits did not include revealing her position for the scavengers who were too lazy to drag their finds to the Invalis base, no matter how dangerous or important their activities were for the benefit of the Devoted Omnissians. "They were pressed," the moderati replied. - Troops bearing the marks of Kelbor-Hal. Lennox nodded. She, of course, did not want to linger on the way back to "Invalis", but a much worse option was a hypothetical capture of garbage collectors with subsequent eliciting from them information about the location of the base by applying binary tortures. "Tell them to wait for the evacuation," said the princeps. - Refine their position and get ready to go to the surface. Ratchek brought the transporter out from under the ground at some distance from the transmitted coordinates. Leaving the cumbersome shrew behind, Lennox, accompanied by Omnek-70 and Zarko, plunged into the Martian twilight. The rebel trinity was among the smoldering ruins of the Autonoks fields. Huge solar grids fell victims of civil war - the rotating panels turned into heaps of scrap metal, the collection stations were destroyed. Lennox raised the plasma-culevrin, listening to the sound of the aircraft. Hiding behind a shattered solar panel, she reached out to Omneku-70, who gave her the magnokulyary in return. Combing through the holes in the sky panel, she found a smoking gravy car, from the cab which was pouring a bright light of spoilage, the loudspeakers tore themselves from the insane garbage code. On board was a symbol that indicated the belonging to the Ordo Reducer. "This is Gordikor," Lennox told Omneku-70 and the machine-maker, "or his minions." Successful operations, like a raid on the Tarantine temple, did not pass unnoticed by the Dark Mechanicums. In retaliation, Kelbor-Hal ordered the magician-reducer Damen Gordikoru to find rebels. Punitive detachments Ordo Reducer could not be better suited for tracking down and destroying the rebel camps. The intelligence of the Devoted Omnissians said that Gordikor only answered before Avl Scaramanka and the factory-general in person. Magos himself participated in these operations - this was evidenced by the remaining faithful designs, recruited from the ashes subjected to attacks by camps and bases. Gordikor's detachments later began to appear more and more regularly in the southern hemisphere and around the poles, prompting the leaders of the Devoted Omnissians to think that the enemy was gradually approaching their position. The insurgents, who were making their way through the destroyed field, had to look for shelter once more when they heard the sounds of a gunfight. The airplane hovered above the ground, watering the target with rays from an annihilating radiator mounted in the turret under the belly of the machine. As they drew nearer, Lennox could hear the distant sounds that were typical for shooting from burnt-burners, flashes of rays flashed past the broken body of the overturned solar collector. There she saw three shrinking figures, sitting out from the side of the battle. "Take a position," Lennox Omneku-70 ordered. The Skytarii silently obeyed and disappeared with his arquebus, in order to find a suitable place for conducting the fire cover. As always, the order to the ranger was not limited to destroying the structures of the Dark Mechanicums, he was also obliged to shoot any rebel from the ranks of the Devoted Omnissia in the event of a threat of captivity. The very resistance on Mars meant much more than any single design, even Lennox herself. The princeps told Omneku-70 that it would be better to die from his transuranic bullet than to go live to the spoil's lair. "In the name of sacred Mars, what's going on here?" - The princeps hissed when they were behind the backs of 44-Tork and Scully-Six-One. It was a couple of scavengers, endowed with the talent of finding untouched damage to weapons and equipment. They also delivered and continued to deliver to the "Invalice" base a noticeable number of recruits and saved designs. Like all the inhabitants of the smithing worlds, their skin had a yellowish tint, and the dressings were stained. On the belts were hanging various tools for the extraction of spare parts, and behind the backs hung cargo networks stuffed with equipment, machinery elements and other belongings. 44-Tork looked fearfully at the two figures behind him, but gazed lightly into the sand, recognizing Lennox and the fat machinist. "My lord," Lennox greeted him, stepping over the cables crouching on the floor and kneeling slightly. Confabulary 66 slowly flew around the princeps. "Princeps," came the voice of the lexorcyst from the servo-skull speakers. - Your mission in the Tarantine temple was successful. Kelbor-Hal and his hated master of war will not receive a mighty godmother. "That's right, a lexorcist." "Although some scavengers reported that a few hours later," continued Raman Sink, "Belladon Ventorum" - a hunting car at you in the Tarantin's car - moved out of the assembly plant in the company of two more "Lords of War." They crossed the plain of Argyr, the solar collectors of Autonoks and entered the Invalis region. The siege company of the possessed battle tanks "Krios" and the detachment of the Tallax joined them in Malea Korda. - Gordicore? "Certainly," agreed the lecturer. "In that case, we need to announce mobilization," Lennox said. "Why did not you announce a general alarm?" "Because they stopped in the Fasmi basin." "Outside the frenzied zone?" "I do not think that the geodesic reducer knows our location," Raman Sink told her. "Know where we are - would not send the Titans and siege machines." He was expecting to find a fort or a rebel camp. Bogomachins will not help him here or in the Invalis region. A raucous laugh burst from the speakers. "But how did the Ordo Reducer understand that we are at least approximately in this region?" Lennox asked. "Time stamps and trajectories do not lie," logisticist Zephireon intervened. - The Titans followed you from the Tirantin Temple to the Autonoks fields, to here. "That's impossible," Lennox said confidently. - We were at depth inaccessible for scanning by augurs. We only once came to the surface to pick up scavengers and their prey. "Magos-purifier has a theory," Sink said. "The theory that I'm going to check," said Arkvid Cornelius, who was pacing his way through the runways, whose head was docked with cables. As soon as the image became clear on the main screen, Lennox realized that the video was transmitted from the quarantine cell chambers of the base - a large room with reinforced walls, which was used by the purse magos and its code cleaners to search for evidence of damage in structures and materials. In a strong quarantine compartment, the princeps could see the powerful, but lifeless "Castellan" standing on his feet. In the shadow of a formidable combat automaton, he was clinging to the Lenk 4-of-12 rock-walled wall, from him a diagnostic cable protruding into the ceiling of the camera. Cornelius turned on the Vox-broadcast. "Get me out of here!" - howled Lenk 4-out-12. "Do not leave me with this creature!" The blacksmith of the smithy was clearly uncomfortable next to the gloomy motionless robot. - Do you think the combat machine carries a spoil in itself? Lennox asked. - That he somehow passed the trajectory of our movement? "We'll find out soon," said Arkvid Cornelius. Princeps looked at the floor, then looked at the lexorcyst. Magos-cleaner gave a command on the Vox bead. - Start the probes. On the screen in front of Lennox from the ceiling of the camera on thin cables came down fur spiders. They crawled along the armored hull of the combat automaton, probing it with probes-augurs. Some managed to crawl through the cracks between the sheets of armor. Dragging the tails of thin cables behind them, they began to explore the inside of the robot. "Like the garbage scavengers who found it, my machine-engineer examined this design, but found no evidence of spoilage." "Yeah," Zephireon's logicians heard a stern reproach in the voice, "the find is too good to be true ... " "Princeps can not be blamed for that," Raman Sink said, silencing the hag. - Demon Gordikor becomes more and more desperate and quirky every day. He is a spoiled construction that answers before the same perverted masters. He is ready to try his luck in anything. He knows that the insurgent detachments must constantly be engaged in the collection of equipment and weapons. All that is required of him is simply to scatter such devices provided with tracking devices and wait for our scavengers to bring them to the base. This is in fact inevitable. "The Lennox princeps are right," said the magos cleaner, who was processing the data stream from the swarm of spider-fur. - Neither I nor my code cleaners find traces of spoiling. The machine looks clean. "There are even more reasons for our scavengers to pick it up," Algerna Zephireon insisted. "It's a bait." "What about tracking devices?" Raman Sink asked. "We need to know if the Ordo Reducer is hiding in the bowels of this robot, at least - to the boundaries of the ghazal zone." "Well, I can say that he does not have a cortex or a processor," answered Cornelius. - The core of the reactor is completely exhausted. Although I catch some kind of energy signature. "There," Lennox said, pointing to the screen with her eyes. - In his chest there is augmentation, which my machine-engineer could not identify. The polyhedral gears of the sphere moved, flawlessly mating with hundreds of others. The sight was just hypnotizing. "What name is this damn machine?" Raman Sink demanded. "According to the identity records, Impedikus," answered Cornelius. - The first manipulation of the Dedaric reservists. "Blessed Omnissia, no," Raman Sink sighed, the voice in the speakers shook. - Tabula Unlimited. "Have you seen this car?" Lennox asked. - What is it? "A long time ago," the lecturer said. "This is a techno-terrorist offspring with monstrous power." The sensual mechanism is the savage intellect, which, I thought, was safely buried by me in the dungeons of the diagnostic kit. "What's he doing?" - continued to ask princeps. - Tabula the Undying wins. Taking advantage of the superiority in cold logic and computing power over the servants of God Machine. As soon as the lexorcist finished speaking, he clicked and switched on. The internal robotic mechanisms that were launched destroyed the fur spiders that had crept under the armor, the severed cables were connected to the ports of the Impedicus. In the command center for a moment, faded lamps and runes, after which the displays began to scroll information at an unthinkable speed. - What's happening? Lennox yelled. "He's inside," said Arkvid Cornelius in a frightened voice. - This thing pulls energy from the reactor base through the probe cables. "Turn it off!" Cried the princeps. - I can not! - Magos-cleaner pulled the cables protruding from the top of the head. "He drew the data streams inside our lines of communication." Now, instead of being the object of research, the machine captures our runobanks. I do not control the base! When the magician panicked and tried to wrest out the cables, Lennox stepped forward. Pulling out the chain sword, she started the blade engine and cut the wires, releasing the magos-cleaner from the influence of the savage intellect. She turned back to the runescreens. Immedikus stumbled forward, dragging the probes behind him, the multifaceted gears Tabula of the Unthinkable frenziedly rotated in some kind of alien human race of synchronism. Lenk 4-out-12 yelled. The worker, who was terrified even by the lifeless automatic machine that was still in existence, fought in panic about the thick armored glass of the inspection window of the quarantine cell; The cables stuck in it rushed around. Frantically howling, he split himself into blood. Tearing his body and face, the worker turned to meet Impedikus. The shadow of the combat automaton covered the forge of the smithy. The screams broke off. Lenka's face 4-of-12 seemed to relax. Then began a nightmare - he drove his own fingers into his belly, but with such uncontrollable force that he punched a gaping hole in his stomach. Rashariv hand in his inner, hard worker, who, judging from the missing expression, in completely insane state, pulled out of his body a black metal device. "Are you looking for this?" Lenk hissed 4-of-12 with his own voice. The worker's skin was charred and blackened, fangs grew, and his features were distorted into a demonic furious grimace. The wires that connected him to the hub, zaburlili from malicious code. The Impedikus combat automaton stood silently above the obsessive inhabitant of the forge world. Logist Zephireon recoiled. Raman Sink and Confabulary 66 simply watched the nightmare spectacle unfolding in the quarantine cell. Lennox knocked the vox-key on the rune bank. - Activate incendiary countermeasures! She ordered, but neither the code cleaners nor the armed servitors outside the building could hear it. Tabula the Uncertain blocked talks. She turned around, intending to leave the command center. "I have to go down there and destroy them ... " "Wait," Raman Cinca said, his eyes fixed on the runo-screen so closely that Lennox also returned to the horrible spectacle. Demonic rage Lenka 4-of-12 began to disappear. It was he, not the "Castellan", who was obligingly carrying a tracking device inside himself, which could lead Ordo troops Gordikor Reducer to Invalis. Now the melted diagnostic cables twitched and flickered - Impedikus sent a stream of cold logic to the ceiling hub. Lenk 4-out-12 issued such painful squeals that it was enough to overload the sound channels. Suppressed by the presence of the savage intellect, bathed in cold logic and undeniable truths, the fallen structure was cleared of spoilage. Runo screens showed Lennox something incredible. The demonic spirit was banished from Lenka 4-of-12. The devilish glow faded in his eyes. Like a tumor under the influence of radiation, the corrupted flesh of the structure dried up and wrinkled. After dropping the tracking device to the floor, Lenk 4-out-12 fainted and flew after, the dangling diagnostic cables escaped from its interface ports. Lifting his armored leg, Impedikus stepped on the tracking device, trampling his wicked mechanisms into the floor. "On the surface, we discovered skitarians and structures from the shock troops of the Dark Mechanicum," Lennox said, turning to the lexorcist. "They were cleared of damage ..." Sink nodded slowly. "Disable the quarantine countermeasures." - What are you doing? - Arkvid Cornelius angrily attacked him. - This creature must be destroyed. "The enemy of my enemy," replied the lecturer. Confabulary 66 looked at Algern Zefireon. "Tabula the Undying does not consider us a threat?" "That's right," said the old woman, continuing her terrible calculations. "He wants the same, which always is, domination on Mars." In the foreseeable horizons of the aspirations of savage intellect, we do not pose a threat to his ambitious task. However, the Dark Mechanics ... are such a threat, so they should be neutralized. Fire or spiritual purification. "The more clean designs it battles against the spoiled," the logist said, "the better the chances of success." "Lecorcist," Lennox said, "what are we going to do?" "Nothing," said Raman Sink. - Open all data lines. "This is insane," murmured Arkvid Cornelius, checking the runobanks. - The intellect has penetrated into all our systems and the noosphere. He already got access to communication systems with the border beacons of the base. Instead of warning us of an unauthorized intrusion, the beacons notify the entire quadrant of our presence! "Let me listen," ordered the lector. Clicking the toggle switch, the magos cleaner cleared reluctantly the imminent signal of Impedicus to fill the command center room with himself. It was at the same time the most beautiful and most terrible thing that Lennox ever heard. Code, cold and constantly recomputable. The invincible force of arithmetic. A song for the red sands of Mars. Block runes Cornelia suddenly switched to statics, and then completely cleared. Letter by letter, word by word on the monitors appeared message - as if for the first time appearing a new code, like a design trying to understand someone else's edging. ++ EMERGENCY EVALUATION ++ ADAPT / EFFECT / COPY ++ IMMEDIATE THREAT AGAINST ++ ADAPT / EFFECT / COPY ++ PLANET ADMINISTRATION ++ ADAPT / EFFECT / COPY ++ SOLAR SYSTEM ASSIMILATION ++ ADAPT / EFFECT / COPY ++ GALAXY ASSIMILATION ++ aDAPT / efforts / COPY ++ ++ ASSIMILATION Universe aDAPT / efforts / COPY / adapt / efforts / COPY / adapt / efforts / COPY / adapt / efforts / COPY / adapt / efforts / COPY / adapt / efforts / COPY / adapt Amb / effort / copy / adapt / effort / COPY / ... - We prayed, and we heard Omnissiah - finally uttered Raman Sink. - A terrible weapon for terrible times. Fire, which can be put out to meet the fire. "This is a techno," Arkvid implored, appealing to the lexorcist. - Let us curse ourselves, but we will save Mars. This is a technical weapon for heretical times. Princeps. - I'm listening, a lexorcist. "I need to see what's happening among the sands on the surface," Raman Sink said. "Go and see what horror Tabula sent for the enemies who have approached our borders." Turning his gaze from Cornelia to the lexorcyst, and then - on the cables of Impedicus, who was standing in the quarantine cell, Lennox turned away and left the headquarters. Lennox inspected through the magnoculars a picture of complete destruction. After ordering Ratchek to bring Archimedesx to the surface in the Fasmi basin, the princeps watched as the Belladon Ventorum directed the wrath of his earth-shattering cannon to the two Titans accompanying him, and the gatlin blaster wiped the armored connections and cybernetic units that swarmed from the face of the planet near his feet. Turning the two "Lords of War" into smoking, spoiled ruins and sweeping the Ordo Reduktor's troops along the dunes, the mighty godmother froze in complete silence. Looking at Titan in the magnoculars, Lennox witnessed how the corrupted crew got out of the command deck and rushed down to meet death. A sudden attack against his comrades saved the Belladon Ventorum from serious damage by return fire. Continuing the visual inspection, Lennox could not detect traces of both spiritual and physical damage. The shadowy darkness of the empty shields has dissipated. The devilish glow of the command deck was extinguished. Leaving Omnetka-70 with its arquebus as a cover, Lennox, accompanied by Ratchek and Zarko, went through the tortured sands. The remains of the Tallax and the riddled corps of the Krios were lying around. Passing through this landscape of absolute annihilation, they stopped in front of the dead colossus. Lennox grinned at her moderation. Ochkarik Radchek nodded. "Well, machine engineer?" "First of all, princeps," Zarko replied. - According to the protocol. The way up the body of the mighty Titan took some time, despite the use of maintenance ladders and special excavations for climbing. Reaching the place, the rebels found a still open hatch of the command deck. This time there was no need for Zarko's tools. The bridge was cool and still. A preliminary check of the systems of the Bogomashina showed that she had received the message of Tabula the Undying, and now her own communications antennas were transmitting at all frequencies. When Zarko climbed into the engine room to prepare a damage report, Lennox and Ratchek combined with the formidable machine spirit of Belladon Ventorum. Now there were only two of them, but eventually they will find the missing crew members among the remaining faithful Omnissia designs. After hesitating, moderati connected to the deck station. And Callistra Lennox became one with the godmother. It swept through the perspective. It was both a meaning and a shell. Flesh and iron. Bones and metal parts of a formidable colossus. Lennox felt the pain, rage and power of the machine. She became the conductor of his apocalyptic will. In those moments, while the monstrous perspectives flooded her essence, Lennox hardly understood how she could live apart from this titanic destructive power. Initially, "Belladon Ventorum" was felt unusually - like boots removed from the deceased. His machine spirit was hostile and angry, but like a tamed predator of the world of death, Titan gradually accepted Lennox. She felt how he appreciated her. As princeps felt the destructive possibilities of the godmother, so the machine in return tried to feel it herself. Titan was attracted by a thirst for revenge. He was drunk with the cold rage of the princeps. Through the sensors and the augurs of the church, Mars was perceived differently. Lennox was no longer a shaky creature of flesh. She was not worried about the corruption of the code, nor the petty malice of the mutinous traitors. She rose above these problems. It became a nascent storm, with the tranquility of a natural disaster looking down upon Mars, which was contaminated with spoiled structures. It became a calm before the hurricane. She opened the communication channel in the noosphere.